Archived updates for Monday, December 20, 2004

I'm Sorry, Please Don't Sue Me

The December 17, 2004 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education examines academic plagiarism in detail -- not the kind that procrastinating, lazy students engage in late at night, but "the kind that professionals who know better attempt in order to further their careers."

Of course, most of us would like to see our works receive recognition, if not outright acknowledgement. In the Talmud, notes Professor Green, "a person who reports something in the name of the one who said it brings redemption into the world." Rabbi, Joseph Telushkin explains the reasoning behind that text this way. "If a person presents as her own an intelligent observation that she learned from another, then it would seem that she did so only to impress everyone with how 'bright' she is. But if she cites the source from whom she learned this information, then it would seem that her motive was to deepen everyone's understanding. And a world in which people share information and insights to advance understanding, and not just to advance themselves, is one well on its way to redemption."